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» » Pyrenees 2007, trip to the highest peek of Spain - Pico d'Aneto 3,404 metres
The Pyrenees (Spanish: Pirineos; French: Pyrénées; Catalan: Pirineus; Occitan: Pirenèus; Aragonese: Perinés; Basque: Pirinioak) are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. They separate the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe, and extend for about 430 km (267 mi) from the Bay of Biscay (Cap Higuer) to the Mediterranean Sea (Cap de Creus).
For the most part, the main crest forms a massive divider between France and Spain, with the tiny country of Andorra sandwiched in between. Catalonia and the Basque Country are the human cultural regions that extend on both sides of the mountain range, with a northern and a southern part on each side.
The Central Pyrenees extend westward from the Aran Valley to the Somport pass to the east, and they include the highest summits of this range:
- Pico d'Aneto or Pic de Néthou 3,404 metres (11,168 ft) in the Maladeta ridge. Aneto is the highest mountain in the Pyrenees and in Aragon, and Spain's third highest mountain - reaching a height of 3,404 m (11,168 ft). It lies in the Spanish province of Huesca, the northernmost of all three Aragonese provinces. It forms the southernmost part of the Maladeta massif. It was also known as Pic de Néthou in French, though this is little-used as the mountain lies entirely within Spain.
Aneto holds the largest glacier in Spain, covering 79.6 ha in 2005; it is shrinking rapidly due to warming summer temperatures and decreasing winter precipitation over the twentieth century- it covered 106.7 ha in 1981, and over 200 ha in the XIX century (Boletin Glaciologico Aragones, 2004).
- Posets peak 3,375 metres (11,073 ft),
- Mont Perdu or Monte Perdido or Mont Perdut 3,355 metres (11,007 ft).
According to the Greek mythology the Pyrenees are named after Pyrene (fire in Greek) the daughter of Bebryx who was supposedly raped by Herakles. Terrified by giving birth to a serpent, she fled to the mountains and was either buried or eaten by wild animals. Herodotus placed the setting of this mythological legend on his map of the Oikumene as early as 450 BC.
